Chapter 12
By 4:30 PM local time, the battle was starting to turn around.
Originally, the invading army never planned to get bogged down for a long fight.
There was only one invading vessel in the shape of a camouflaged cargo ship; they were not working very closely with the soldiers who infiltrated ahead of time. The initial objective of the surprise attack was the National High School Magic Thesis Competition, but due to the fact that insufficient forces were committed, only partial damage was caused to the building. Even so, they originally anticipated only police resistance as they took control of key objectives and kidnapped civilians, hence they only invested a small force. However, a major miscalculation came from the fact that the Magic Association organized volunteers for defense much faster than they expected.
Of course, there was also the fast reaction time from the JSDF. One hour after mobilization, a battalion of reinforcements had appeared to shield the fleeing civilians.
Since the nearby enemy started retreating, the battle turned into a peace-keeping sweep. Beyond verifying the identities of evacuating civilians, the situation was improving rapidly.
However, the young men and women stuck in the heart of the maelstrom had no inkling of this.
"Kurosawa-san? ...Yes, OK. ...Yes, thank you."
After speaking with someone, who must have been the butler from her home (Kitayama Family), Shizuku removed the transmission device from her ear. Simultaneously, the sound of a helicopter's engine could be heard.
"Saegusa-senpai, the company's helicopters will be here shortly."
Hearing Shizuku's report, Mayumi raised her face from the messaging terminal she was staring at with a grim expression and put on a cool smile.
"I got it. Kitayama-san, you go ahead and take the women and families with children first. Inagaki-san, please accompany her and provide support for Kitayama-san on board. Also, Inagaki-san, could you please coordinate and direct the people who haven't evacuated yet? Ichihara and I will also lend a hand. Mitsui-san, please monitor the surroundings."
Crisply giving out a series of orders, she quietly heaved a small sigh. The already fussy civilians who were being evacuated slowly would undoubtedly be displeased.
There were a lot of people who balked at having a child controlling the evacuation process.
So far, they hadn't encountered anyone creating a scene because they were afraid that they couldn't board the helicopter in time, but if there were any delays from the incoming helicopters, then tensions and anxiety would definitely rise.
Originally, two helicopters arriving at the same time would have been ideal, but she couldn't tell the helicopter that arrived first to just wait overhead.
"What are you doing wasting time here? Seriously."
Looks like Mayumi first needed to wrestle down her own anxiety.
The CO of the invasion force didn't bother to hide his grim visage at the continuously worsening situation of the battle. In order to succeed, this operation called for a solo ship to blitzkrieg the enemy nation, accomplish all the objectives, and evacuate before the enemy could respond. According to this design, the first phase of the mission was a complete success. While the enemy's fast response time was within predictable parameters, the strength of the civilian resistance surpassed all prediction. Based on the original plan, they should already have shifted to the withdrawal phase, but while they were bogged down with the resistance from the volunteers, the enemy's encirclement was complete.
The route along the coastline to the north had been barred by forces coming from Tsurumi. It was now impossible to catch up to the civilians fleeing by sea and take hostages.
"Lost contact with all unmanned observation drones!"
Upon his subordinate's report, the CO couldn't help but bitterly smack his lips. Even the last unmanned drone had been shot down. Now, he could only issue orders with the intel he had on hand. He mentally railed at Chen Xiangshan, who was currently deep in the enemy formation and still had yet to send the signal, before ordering the troops headed north to retreat.
At the same time, in the inland direction — there was a plaza in front of the bus station waiting for helicopters to arrive.
The wheeled APC that turned the corner on the intersection skidded and started spinning.
Isori's "Road Extension" successfully broke through the vehicle's suspension and caused the APC to flip over, only coming to a stop after the spinning wheels collided with a traffic light.
"Kanon!"
"Leave it to me!"
Since they were on the outer perimeter of the defense line, Kanon no longer had to worry about the students in the underground shelter, so she could activate the Chiyoda Family's far-famed "Mine Genesis" with impunity.
A titanic vibration originated from beneath the APC as if mocking the shock resistant devices attached to each wheel. The shock wave spread throughout the vehicle's interior and caused untold damage. The outer armor of the APC survived, but the insides were a complete mess. Thanks to the shock delivered to the brain and semicircular canals, the pilot must have been concussed into unconsciousness.
Bullets from an autocannon turret tore chunks out of the building's wall that the two of them were hiding behind. That was retaliatory fire from the APCs following the lead vehicle.
Isori hugged the screaming Kanon into his chest and protected her with his body while he erected a reverse momentum field along the wall.
Taking advantage of the opening created by the reflected bullets impacting the APC, Mari activated magic that lowered oxygen density from her hiding spot on the other side.
However, to defend against BC [1] weapons, the excellent air filtration system within the vehicles resisted the change, so her magic didn't achieve any noticeable effect.
Clucking her tongue, Mari disengaged the magic that interfered with the oxygen density's Eidos and instead increased the temperature of the air surrounding the Howitzer.
The Howitzer was just about to fire, and the ensuing explosion took out the neighboring autocannon turret as well.
Seeing that the APC had lost all combat capabilities, Kirihara charged forward on the attack.
The armor was penetrated easily.
Sonic Blade stabbed into the pilot's seat.
The rear cargo doors opened and soldiers armed with rifles appeared.
A bolt came flying.
Immediately afterward, Kirihara's sword sliced through the throat of the soldier whose right arm was pierced by that bolt.
"Mibu, you alright?"
Sayaka was the one who shot the right shoulder of the soldier taking aim at Kirihara. Sayaka insisted that "she is coming along no matter what" (that alone was sufficient to hesitate Kirihara), to which Kirihara presented the condition that "she is not to use her sword techniques to kill anyone". The only times she was allowed to use the sword was against nonhuman targets or in cases where she was forced to defend herself against other humans; all other situations were strictly forbidden. For this, besides her kodachis, Sayaka was also equipped with a small mechanical crossbow device.
"I'm fine. This is the battlefield, and I've already made up my mind."
Sayaka's face was a little pale, but her answer was resolute.
At this moment, the ground started to shake again.
This time, it was the incoming bipedal tanks that suffered under Kanon's magic.
Unfortunately, the enemy vehicles retreated to reduce taking damage.
Wary of further attacks from the Howitzers, they were forced to take cover.
The slowly growing enemy formation locked their sights on Kanon's group.
Miyuki's interference strength did not allow any enemy magic to exist.
Even those amplified by Boosters.
The frozen APC was under attack from "Usuba Kagerou".
The length of the ultra thin blade made of carbon nanotubes tucked within the hammer head could increase up to 20 meters. In other words, Leo was holding a sword that could stretch out to 20 meters at will.
Still, the longer the blade length was, the greater the difficulty of the Fortifying Magic to sustain it. That being said, Leo easily formed a 10 meter long blade and neatly bisected the APC from the side.
"Enemies on the right flank! Core is in the same position!"
Mizuki was the first to catch wind of the enemy bipedal tank rounding their flank while Mikihiko provided the magic to break the enchantment.
As if the bipedal tank ran straight into an invisible wall, both arms draped downwards.
There, Erika struck with a speed that the eye could not follow.
Yamatsunami.
Orochimaru's large blade smashed the mechanized weaponry that was twice its height.
Miyuki and Mikihiko provided covering fire, which allowed Leo and Erika to take down the enemy vehicles one by one.
"Mizuki."
After things settled down for a while, Mizuki turned her head when someone unexpectedly called her name, only to find Miyuki inquiring about what the other groups were doing.
"How is Chiyoda-senpai's side doing?"
Miyuki did not know about the reinforcements headed in Mari's direction, nor did Mizuki mention this. (She never had the leisure to do so.)
"Hm... There's still no change. They're still locked in combat."
The team of upperclassmen took up a defensive position slightly ahead of them. It was the second of two important positions leading to the bus station.
"What is it, Miyuki? Why are you thinking about that at this point in time?"
Seeing Miyuki frown slightly as she spoke to Mizuki, Erika asked with Orochimaru hanging over her shoulder.
"Don't you think this is a little strange? Why is the enemy specifically coming for our area?"
Erika also furrowed her brows at Miyuki's question.
"If they want to get to the bus station, don't they have to pass through our location?"
The two locations where the upperclassmen and Year 1 student teams were dug in were based off of Suzune's estimations using the local map.
However, Miyuki was unable to accept Mizuki's response at face value.
"That would be under the assumption that the enemy advanced along open streets, Mizuki. The enemy is at least equipped with communication devices.
We only have a paltry 10 people on defense; the enemy could easily circumvent us by secretly advancing through areas we have no one defending."
"...They must be blocked off."
Erika's words prompted a look on Mizuki's face that said "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Incoming!"
Yet, with Mikihiko's warning that new enemies were inbound, their speculation was forcibly put on hold.
Once the twin-engine helicopter piloted by Kurosawa — this female butler seemed to know how to pilot helicopters in addition to taking the wheel of a vessel — appeared overhead and prepared to lower the altitude, an incident broke out.
Suddenly, a black cloud appeared and rolled through the air. Without warning, a swarm of locusts came barreling down out of season.
Even if they were only locusts, flying into the active intake was extremely dangerous.
Also, this unnatural timing hinted at their supernatural origins.
About to greet the helicopter, Shizuku immediately made the decision to pull out her CAD.
A handgun-shaped silver CAD.
After the Nine Schools Competition, she purchased the second generation Silver Series.
On it, she had installed "Phonon Mazer" under the Loopcast System.
Pointing it at the sky, she pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Rays of sound cut swathes through the locusts.
"There's, too many...!"
The locust swarm wasn't being burned to death, merely disappeared upon being burned, but that was only a portion of the entire swarm.
Despite the repeated Phonon Mazers striking the rapidly approaching locusts, the swarm continued to close in on the descending helicopter.
Honoka noticed this as well, but since her magic was unsuitable for meeting the enemy, she held back in fear that her magic would interfere with Shizuku's own.
Just as the locust swarm was about to engulf the helicopter.
?
A hurricane of annihilation swept across the swarm.
Like a dream, the black cloud of locusts lost cohesion and swiftly vanished as their colors died away.
Honoka and Shizuku both looked skyward.
Half a step late in detecting the anomaly, Mayumi and Suzune also swept their gazes skyward.
There, a black figure hovered in the air with a silver CAD in hand.
"Tatsuya...?"
There was no way to tell if Shizuku or Honoka said this.
More combat personnel wearing the same black suits appeared and formed a protective barrier around the helicopter.
The cargo helicopter began to descend once more.
"Successfully denied enemy chemical congregation attack; commence escort for helicopter landing."
"Leave the escort to other personnel. Special Lieutenant, hunt down the Magician and eradicate them."
"Understood."
Acknowledging Yanagi's order, Tatsuya activated the "eye" used to locate the Magicians who sent the familiars.
When he struck, he wasn't aiming to decompose each individual locust's body.
The target his magic was aimed at was the Magic Sequences that formed each locust's chemical congregation.
After decomposing the magic holding the chemical congregation together, the locust dissolved back into psions.
During this process, he also caught the trail where the Magic Sequence was coming from.
At this distance and taking into account the time already spent, even while continuing to maintain Flying-Type Magic, finishing the S&D [2] mission was a piece of cake.
(There, is it?)
Although he could take them out from here, using magic within sight range was significantly easier.
Tatsuya flew towards the skies above the fleeing Magician.
Wielding large caliber silver guns — gun-shaped CADs — the soldiers in black garb flew like comets towards the skyscrapers.
Comrades toting rifles formed a circle in the sky as the helicopter descended to the plaza in the middle.
The pitch black figures with completely obscured figures gave the impression that they were the harbingers of disaster.
However, regardless of whether it was Honoka or Shizuku, Mayumi or Suzune, none of them felt uneasy in any way.
"Who are they?"
Inagaki walked over and asked warily.
"Comrades."
Mayumi replied succinctly with a smile.
They could be said to be Tatsuya's comrades, Fujibayashi's comrades, or a unit from the JSDF.
Mayumi wasn't familiar with the details, but that was sufficient.
While the civilians were boarding the helicopter, they carefully guarded the area from up high.
They had been continuously in flight for ten minutes at least.
Even so, there was no sign of magic exhaustion.
All of them must be high class Magicians.
There was once such a rumor.
The JSDF selected powerful Magicians from specialized fields and formed an experimental unit.
Their individual rankings as Magicians were nothing special, but once in combat, they were a combat Magician unit capable of unimaginable carnage.
Thinking along those lines, they fit the criteria perfectly.
"They're reliable reinforcements!"
Mayumi added this as she watched the helicopter load up on civilians.
The helicopter with Shizuku and Inagaki on board successfully lifted off and once it reached a height safe from hostile fire, the flying units from the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion on guard scattered towards the surrounding skyscrapers.
The remaining citizens were considerably settled now. The JSDF was on guard, and although there was that sense of foreboding because their faces couldn't be seen, at the very least it was better than leaving everything to children. As for their current feeling, there was little point in demanding anything further from them.
"They're finally here..."
There was no longer any danger of a panic settling in thanks to the reinforcements, but Mayumi yearned to escape from the pressure exerted by the citizens, so there was nothing fake about using the word "finally" to describe her current mood when the long sought for sound of engines came to her ears.
A military twin-engine helicopter had arrived.
It was a whole level larger than the normal helicopter Shizuku arranged for.
This way, the remaining civilians could all be brought on board with no difficulty.
Also, the helicopter didn't arrive alone.
There was another combat helicopter escorting the first one.
"Mayumi Ojou-sama, are you safe?"
Her bodyguard Nakura's voice came across the transmission device tucked in her ear.
"I'm fine, Nakura. Where are you?"
"I'm aboard the combat helicopter. The master ordered Ojou-sama to also board this helicopter."
"—I understand."
Mayumi already gave up on asking to "stay behind". Unfortunately, Nakura was better at close quarters combat too. Even so, she couldn't just attack the helicopter that came to rescue them, hence she had abandoned all ideas of resistance.
"Anyway, please hasten the boarding process."
After ending the transmission, she made the request to Suzune.
In response, Suzune turned her head.
At this time.
"Don't move!"
A young man put an arm around Suzune's neck from behind while a glimmering knife appeared in the other hand.
Although the rifles on the neighboring skyscraper pointed in the man's direction, another man rushed in front of him holding a grenade.
"...I see, so this was the plan all along?"
The one who quietly spoke up was the one being threatened by the knife, Suzune.
"You certainly think quickly on your feet!"
Although that steadiness warned him something was awry, the guerrilla who pretended to be one of the fleeing civilians still replied in the affirmative to Suzune's words.
"The mechanized units drew our forward firepower so you could ascertain the target once the number of fleeing people decreased."
"We never planned on letting them flee in the first place, but even if they did, that wouldn't impact the mission in the slightest."
Suzune spoke as if completely ignorant of the danger, whereas the man also seemed to be affected by this and replied back.
"You selected me as the target because of a reliable source of energy?"
"Not just that. Several of ours were captured in this battle, and you are the hostage necessary for their release."
"I'm not that big of a bargaining chip."
"I'm not so sure about that—I thought I said don't move!"
Keenly aware that Mayumi was operating her CAD from behind her back, the man waved the knife in his hand.
Mayumi gave up and put both hands up.
"If you're the hostage, there's no way the Saegusa Family would just abandon you. Compared to taking their daughter as the hostage, taking the daughter's friend as a hostage is far more effective."
"That's true, since Mayumi is a naive person."
Why was she watching me with such critical eyes; despite how unreasonable those words were, Mayumi couldn't interfere.
Maybe she was being "naive", but certainly not to the degree that deserved a scolding.
"Next, you're going to abduct me to your home country, correct?"
"Exactly."
"But shouldn't you perform the exchange beforehand?"
"That's... You! What have you done?"
The man finally realized he said far too much. While he did have a hostage in hand, even he couldn't believe that he just shot his mouth for so long while surrounded by enemies.
"Your combat capability isn't too bad."
Suzune easily pushed aside the hand holding the knife.
"But your target selection is poor."
She deftly got free of the arm around her neck.
"I'm nothing special when casting magic with a CAD, but my magic without a medium surpasses even Mayumi and Juumonji-kun."
She turned to the man holding the grenade and plucked the grenade from his hand.
"I can numb your muscles and nervous system at will. For a time, your bodies cannot move freely."
As she said, no matter how they tried to budge a muscle, their hands and feet were unable to consciously move.
"Magic that directly interfered with the human body was once forbidden. The very nature of this magic was essentially a form of human experimentation, hence it was forbidden on the surface. The disadvantage is that this requires a certain amount of time to activate, but your ceaseless tirade certainly proved to be a huge help. Oh yes, speaking of which, your verbosity had nothing to do with magic. You were simply too careless."
Suzune said this with a chilling smirk on her face.
The enemy attacks on the side branch of the Magic Association intensified. Reaching the limit of their attack, the invader force committed their forces to get a decisive victory.
In the side branch, Katsuto kept overhearing reports coming in.
The JSDF were beginning their counterattack from Sakuragi-ch?, but the volunteers formed by the Magic Association were barely holding the enemy at China Street in Ishikawamachi.
"—Have you prepared a combat uniform?"
At Katsuto's question, the female employee looked aghast.
"Do you mean to sortie yourself? You can't do that!"
"You have prepared a combat uniform, correct?"
Still, Katsuto's determined follow up question overawed the female employee into nodding.
"But, you're the heir of the Juumonji Family..."
"Please lead the way."
Katsuto cut short her stuttering words.
The female attendant stiffly rose to her feet.
The other scion of the Ten Master Clans joined the volunteers at China Street. Amid the enemies running to and fro, one man passed through them accompanied by blossoming crimson flowers and made contact with the unit fighting against the invasion force.
The protective gear he wore was obtained from one of the wounded.
Pressed against cover, his left hand tightly gripped the glowing red CAD as Masaki panted loudly.
This was the exhaustion caused by repeated use of Rupture.
In addition, the enemy's attacks switched from mobile armors to magic, causing exhaustion to set in earlier.
Phantoms advanced in waves. They were called phantoms because they didn't have an actual body and were illusions created by Ancient Magic.
Masaki didn't use the Specialized CAD in his left hand and operated the Generalized CAD on his left wrist.
Interference strength expanded outwards.
With only a wooden idol left behind, the phantom illusions vanished.
In order to create a wide area interference strength and dispel all the phantoms, this exhausted a lot of Masaki's reserves.
His "Rupture" magic was used to evaporate fluids within the target's body. If the target did not contain fluids inside its body, then that magic would have no effect.
The enemy's response was incredibly swift. Seeing the first force of bipedal tanks fall under attacks from Rupture, they immediately threw phantom units onto the battlefield.
Against illusions created by Ancient Magic with no physical body, Rupture held no meaning.
Even without a physical body, the illusions still possessed attack power.
They worked in the same way as hypnosis.
Humans cut by the illusions would die from the red welt that appeared on their body.
While Magicians who applied Data Fortification to themselves could nullify the phantom strikes, volunteers who were not Magicians were not so fortunate.
Mixed in with the volunteers, Masaki could only continue to clash against the phantoms while his specialized magic was sealed, all the while desperately searching for the location of the enemy Magicians.
On the side of the cargo helicopters, the civilian boarding was already complete.
"Rin-chan, it's all up to you now."
"Mayumi, don't push yourself too hard."
The helicopter took off.
The soldiers in black accompanied the helicopter into the air and flew escort.
After seeing the helicopter ascend to a safe height, the flying soldiers flew towards the coast.
"Let's go as well. Let's find Miyuki and Mari's groups and get out of here."
"—Got it."
Nakura seemed to have something to say upon hearing Mayumi's orders, but ultimately chose to respectfully bow his head and return to the co-pilot's seat.
The combat helicopter Mayumi and Honoka boarded began to ascend.
Along the way, Mayumi noticed one of the soldiers watching them leave from atop one of the skyscrapers.
In his right hand, he held a silver Specialized CAD.
Honoka was facing the other direction, so she didn't see him.
On the helicopter, Mayumi stuck her tongue out at that soldier.
Beneath his gray mask, Tatsuya clearly beheld Mayumi making a funny face at him.
(...What a cheerful individual.)
Beyond that, Tatsuya had no other thoughts on the subject.
(Speaking of which, so Ichihara-senpai used to be "Ichihana", eh.)
The magic that Suzune used was the other reason why the Ichihana name had been stripped.
That magic relied a great deal on the Ichihana Family's natural innate qualities.
Magic that directly interfered with the human body was forbidden at the time, so besides medical reasons, usage of that sort of magic was heavily restricted.
Although he had no idea whether Suzune was aware of all the details, the truth of the matter was that she inherited the Ichihana bloodline.
However, Tatsuya also thought.
(If that's the case, then my magic wouldn't result in something so easy as being stripped of my number.)
Instead of chuckling wryly, he was silently contemplating this in the privacy of his mind. Tatsuya activated the transmission device on his helmet.
"Saegusa Mayumi-san has boarded the helicopter and is flying towards the coast at low altitude. She is expected to rendezvous with her peers and underclassmen before evacuating from the area."
"Understood. After verifying that the VIP has departed from the combat zone, return to the main unit."
"Understood."
So it's finally starting, Tatsuya thought, after he cut the feed.
Yanagi may not have said it, but the counterattack was about to begin even if he did not.
Thus, the first priority was to ensure that Mayumi's group safely escaped.
Standing on the roof, Tatsuya pointed his CAD downwards and simply pulled the trigger.
One corner of the building burst into flames before abruptly disappearing.
Besides the guided missile launcher that fell to the ground, nothing else remained.
Modern day weapons would not detonate because of such a trivial impact.
The same occurrence happened five times.
After double-checking that there was nobody else taking aim at the helicopter, Tatsuya turned his head.
Only to find a man holding a sword standing there.
"—Who are you?"
The question came from the man before him.
To be able to climb up here — and not using any orthodox method at that since he took the odd approach of leaping between the walls of skyscrapers. He was definitely a man of considerable skill.
"JSDF 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion Special Lieutenant, Ooguro Ryuuya."
"What?"
The man — Inspector Chiba Toshikazu, didn't expect Tatsuya to frankly answer his question.
Tatsuya's sudden reply along with that unheard of unit designation caused Toshikazu's stance to waver slightly.
Tatsuya lightly stepped off the rooftop.
Rather than jumping in Toshikazu's direction, he flew off the building.
Tatsuya's left hand tapped his belt.
His body was released from gravity's control.
The CAD in his right hand keeping Toshikazu at bay, Tatsuya soared to a height where bullets could not reach.
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